Excel is perhaps the most important computer software program used in the workplace today. That’s why so many workers and prospective employees are required to learn Excel in order to enter or remain in the workplace.

From the viewpoint of the employer, particularly those in the field of information systems, the use of Excel as an end-user computing tool is essential. Not only are many business professionals using Excel to perform everyday functional tasks in the workplace, an increasing number of employers rely on Excel for decision support.

In general, Excel dominates the spreadsheet product industry with a market share estimated at 90 percent. Excel 2007 has the capacity for spreadsheets of up to a million rows by 16,000 columns, enabling the user to import and work with massive amounts of data and achieve faster calculation performance than ever before.

Outside the workplace, Excel is in broad use for everyday problem solving.

Let’s say you have a home office. You can use Excel to calculate sales tax on a purchase, calculate the cost of a trip by car, create a temperature converter, calculate the price of pizza per square inch and do analysis of inputted data. You can track your debt, income and assets, determine your debt to income ratio, calculate your net worth, and use this information to prepare for the process of applying for a mortgage on a new house. The personal uses for Excel are almost as endless as the business uses for this software – and an Excel tutorial delves into the practical uses of the program for personal and business use.

The use of spreadsheets on computers is not new. Spreadsheets, in electronic form, have been in existence since before the introduction of the personal computer. Forerunners to Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 were packages such as VisiCalc, developed and modeled on the accountant’s financial ledger. Since 1987, spreadsheet programs have been impacting the business world. Along the way, computerized spreadsheets have become a pervasive and increasingly effective tool for comparative data analysis throughout the world.

Today, end users employ Excel to create and modify spreadsheets as well as to author web pages with links and complex formatting specifications. They create macros and scripts. While some of these programs are small, one-shot calculations, many are much more critical and affect significant financial decisions and business transactions.

Widely used by businesses, service agencies, volunteer groups, private sector organizations, scientists, students, educators, trainers, researchers, journalists, accountants and others, Microsoft Excel has become a staple of end users and business professionals.

The beauty of Excel is that it can be used as a receiver of workplace or business data, or as a calculator, a decision support tool, a data converter or even a display spreadsheet for information interpretation. Excel can create a chart or graph, operate in conjunction with Mail Merge functions, import data from the Internet, create a concept map and sequentially rank information by importance.

Excel offers new data analysis and visualization tools that assist in analyzing information, spotting trends and accessing information more easily than in the past. Using conditional formatting with rich data display schemes, you can evaluate and illustrate important trends and highlight exceptions with colored gradients, data bars and icons.

Indeed, Excel can be customized to perform such a wide variety of functions that many businesses can’t operate without it. Excel training has become mandatory in many workplaces; in fact, computer software training is a must for any workplace trying to keep up with the times.

Let’s say you’re an employer with 97 workers, 17 of whom called in sick today, and you want to know the percentage represented by absentees. Excel can do that. You can learn Excel and use it to determine the ratio of male to female employees, the percentage of minorities on the payroll, and the ranking of each worker by compensation package amount, including the percentages of that package according to pay and benefits. You can use Excel to keep track of production by department, information that may assist you in future development plans. You can create additional spreadsheets to track data on vendors and customers while maintaining an ongoing inventory of product stock.

Let’s say you want to know your business production versus cost. You don’t have to be a math wiz – you just have to learn Excel. Excel allows you to input all of the data, analyze it, sort it according to your customized format, and display the results with color, shading, backgrounds, icons and other gimmicks that offer time-saving assistance in later locating precisely the information desired. If this spreadsheet is for presentation purposes, Excel helps you put it together in such a visually appealing way that the data may seem to pop and sparkle.

The single most important thing an employer may do is learn Excel – it is one of the most essential tools of the workplace.

Excel and Microsoft are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, registered in the U.S. and other countries. Lotus is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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Computer hardware courses are an excellent way to learn how to manage the inevitable computer failures that you will encounter as you find yourself hanging on your computer more and more everyday. While you do have the option of taking your computer to the service center it can cost you a lot of time and money. Your computer hardware course is invaluable for helping you understand the hardware requirements for your computer that will be enable you to jump to the rescue instead of trudging along to the repair shop.

It does not take an engineer or a technician to be successful in learning about computer hardware. If you are interested in engineering or technician positions however, a background in computer hardware can make you a far more valuable person in your field and can enhance your employability tremendously.

To troubleshoot your computer you can do very well with a simple computer hardware course. You can become your own specialist and forgo spending the money on an IT specialist.

The time invested in a computer hardware study program will pay off quickly when things go wrong. But, this is not the only reason taking a computer hardware course would be a good plan.

Not only will you be able to fix your computer, but you will have the knowledge to build a computer from scratch. The cost of computer parts is often far less expensive than buying a pre-made package. You will also be able to customize your computer so that it is perfectly designed for your needs.

By avoiding the cost of labor from the computer store you will have a far less expensive computer that is perfect for you. You will also no longer need to worry about taking your computer in for repairs as you will know just how to fix what goes wrong.

Computer knowledge is in high demand no matter what career you are involved in. With the information you learn in a computer hardware course you will be able to take on an IT position. Such positions are in high demand as a limited number of people have the knowledge to take on an IT role.

The time needed to take a computer hardware course is well worth the investment. Learning about software and programming can only make you even better with your computer goals. If you are limited in time, not to worry. Many courses are available online or on CD for you to do at home.

Take some time to discover exactly what will be covered in your course. The computer technology field is huge, so you will need to focus. You will never be able to learn everything about computer hardware in a single course. It takes a lifetime of study to learn, and with technology constantly changing you will need to continuously work on keeping your knowledge up to date. A computer hardware course will bring you a chance to get ahead of the game and keep up with your own computer.

Louis Zhang, computerhardwarecute dot com

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Let’s understand this simple definition: Computer Viruses can be considered as small software application which tends to take control over computer operation. The computer virus may delete contents from the hard disk and even take a ride on e-mail programs to become pandemic. Computer viruses be in various formats like in form of images, audio or video files. They may spread while downloading files from the Internet. Sometimes they may be purchased along with the pirated software too.

Let’s concentrate on symptoms of Viruses

There can be difficulty in accessing any disk or drive. The system might be running slow. Sometimes it may freeze. You may see distorted menus and dialog boxes. Any program may disappear on its own without any action. Sometimes you may see some new icons on the desktop. Application will not be running smooth. You may get error of any system file missing. Your windows may restart automatically sometimes. If you see this kind of symptoms on your system, then install any latest version of anti virus which you think compatible with the Operating System you have. Scan your system for the Computer Viruses. Even in severe condition you may need to format your system completely.

Let’s see what we can do to remove a Virus

You need to apply a Computer Viruses removal tools for the purpose. Sometimes you may find specific problems which are associated with some unwanted software programs which carries Computer Viruses You may get those viruses again in your system after uninstalling those programs. So you should be very much smart while choosing for the Tools for Computer Viruses removal.

To remove virus, follow these steps

1. Visit the Microsoft website to get latest updates from Microsoft Updates.

2. Perform regular scanning of your system with any updated Anti- Virus.

3. Download, install, and then run the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool to remove Computer Viruses the system.

Preventive measure for Computer Virus

Its highly recommended you to keep your Operating systems updated. If you are not online don’t forget to check for Windows updates frequently. This is important because the Virus creator always tries to make use of any void in your Operating System to install their software Computer Viruses. If you are online user then make sure that your web browser is also an updated one. Try to use the most compatible and latest of the Web browser may be from any one like IE, Firefox, Opera or anyone else, because the Virus writer always tries to find mistakes in your browser.

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Forensic accounting is the practice of utilizing accounting auditing and investigative skills to assist in legal matters to obtain an accurate result to establish the accountability for administrative proceeding. You may be wondering, why study forensic accounting?

Well, here are the five reasons:

Our current economic crisis has left many companies to face serious financial issues that may lead to bankruptcy. Hence, these companies have been forced to stoop down to the lowest level to save their company by committing frauds and swindles. This makes such a job an important one that increases in demand each year.

Internal audit in the company could not throw light on the different fact and other hidden aspects of the corporate fraud. They are hardly in a position to initiate proper action at proper time due to their lack of forensic accounting skills.

Forensic accounting is a new and very exciting study. This change the perspective of the world on accounting study, which has been a theoretically dull field in itself.

If you are ambitious, fast, observant, creative and diligent, Forensic accounting is definitely a dream job and a great investment. Using computer technology, creative thinking, and careful inspection of financial records; the hidden proof of the crimes can be discovered.

You will always be equipped with the latest computer software and gadgets. Forensic accounting heavily relies on computer software and generalized audit software to aid in the detection and investigation of fraud and white-collar crimes. Also, investigative tools such as data mining, link analysis software and case management software and the use of the Internet are the essential skills as well.

In conclusion, forensic accounting has been stereotyped as a boring and uninteresting job which has been proved to be wrong. There are many reasons which show to be benefits when it comes to studying forensic accounting. Not only will you be rewarded with a stable job, you would also look forward to going to work everyday

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As a computer user you must have heard about a DBF file or some of you have used it. DBF is a database file format used by various database software programs, such as: Visual FoxPro, Clipper, dbFast, CodeBase, MultiBase, dbXL, Arago and similar database programs. A database file is a collection of data organized in a tabular form. A DBF file can be easily opened, edited and saved by any of these database programs therefore, this file format is very popular among computer users.

The most common use of a database file is to store a large amount of data and information. The file is widely used in almost every sector, such as: corporate and educational sectors to store the data and information. It has become an essential file format for an individual and an organization.

Where this file format is very useful for users on the other hand, it may create some serious problems as well. Sometimes a DBF file may become inaccessible or invalid due to corruption. DBF is not immune to corruption; in fact, this file format is prone to corruption due to its large size and complex file structure. It might be easily corrupted due to various reasons, such as: virus attacks, malfunction in database application, hard disk drive failure, software collision, unexpected cancellation of DBF, human errors and many more. These are some common reasons which can play an important role in database file corruption.

While opening a corrupt DBF file you may receive some error messages something like these:

“File .dbf does not exist”.

“The fields in table did not match the entries in the database”.

“Access to table disabled due to previous error”.

“Database file appears corrupt: Page is of wrong type.

“Corrupt table”/ “index header”.

“Filename .dbf has become corrupted”.

These are some common errors which frequently take place at the time of corruption. For example: you are working on your DBF file, everything is fine. But all of a sudden your database application (Visual FoxPro or other) starts hanging. You have no other option other than restarting the system. But when you restart your system and open the same DBF file, in which you were working earlier, it does not open or you get an error message saying the file is corrupted or damaged. This must be very frustrating situation for any user since all the hard work will go into the vain. All the data and information stored in the file might be lost forever. You have to re-create the file, which might not be possible in some cases.

In such critical state a BKF file will definitely help you. If you have backed up the database file (which is now corrupted), then you can easily restore it from the BKF file. But sometimes the BKF file may not be available or corrupted or invalid. In this situation you can use third-party DBF recovery software. This is one of the most efficient and effective solutions to fix corrupt DBF files. The DBF recovery software is designed to repair an extremely corrupted DBF file and to restore maximum data from it. It is highly capable to resolve or fix all the errors from corrupted DBF files. The software supports all popular database applications, such as: dBase III, dBase IV, dBase V, Visual FoxPro, Clipper, dBFast, CodeBase, MultiBase, dBXL and Arago. The best feature of the software is its self-describing user interface. It requires no technical knowledge or skills to use this software. Any tech savvy and a novice user can easily and comfortably use this software to repair corrupted DBF files. The DBF Recovery software is available with free demo version. Users can download the demo version before buying the full software. This helps users to examine the features and performance.

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Enterprise system and Enterprise Resource Planning System terms are similar but there is difference between an enterprise system and an ERP system. An ES or enterprise system is a large scale system which includes packages like ERP and CRM. ERP is a subset of Enterprise System or it can be said that ES is a superset of ERP. It contains a variety of solutions. ES contains applications and packaged solutions which can be directly used in an enterprise. On the other hand ERP system is the automation of the business processes and the solutions are in the form of modules which are designed according to the client’s requirements.

The functions are customized according to the client’s business environment. Enterprise system does not include architecture of other solutions whereas an ERP implementation automates systems using technical aspects. ERP system includes architectures and databases and is client server architecture. The system is server based therefore the consultant needs to be aware of the technical aspect too.

Another difference between an ES and an ERP system is that the ERP is aimed at improving the functionalities of the organization whereas the ES helps to improve the overall maintenance and accuracy. It provides for better solutions and aids in decision making. ES is difficult to implement compared to Enterprise resource planning and even the timeframe needed for implementation maybe more. The overall impact is high but so are the risks involved. If the ES is not implemented in the right manner, it can cause business failure and if implemented properly it can increase the efficiency and profits of the business organization. It is normally required when there is a big drawback in the current procedures and methodologies in the organization and need to be corrected. The company going in for enterprise system needs to be careful while choosing the software and the vendors due to the risk of failure involved.

The difference between an enterprise system and an ERP system is that ERP is mostly used for medium scale companies to big companies and ES is restricted to the big companies. There are many complex functions involved in big companies which cannot be provided solutions for alone by ERP. The role of ERP is restricted when compared to enterprise system because it does not include customer relationship or vendor management.

These applications are needed when the business process is complex and on a big scale. Therefore bigger organizations need to go with ES instead of enterprise resource planning alone. ERP is also an important system to streamline the internal processes but it does not provide for taking care of the external processes. Enterprise system takes care of the end to end business process of organization since it involves other applications also like SCM and CRM. There is quite a lot of difference between an enterprise system and an ERP and it depends on the company whether it wants to go with an ES to streamline the entire process starting from supplying, production and customer or whether he wants to go with an ERP system to streamline the internal process.

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I have seven Siemens S7-300 PLCs connected together using the MPI (Multi Point Interface) interface. The Siemens MPI protocol is used by Siemens PLCs to communicate with external devices. I want to rename each of the seven PLCs. Here are the steps to accomplish that task.

First, connect your MPI cable to the first PLC. I will be connecting my laptop to each PLC individually. Power up the PLC and open Simatic Manager. The "New Project" Wizard window will open. Just click Cancel to close the window. Now click the Accessible Nodes icon on the toolbar. A window will open showing the identification of the PLC you are connected to. My window is showing MPI = 2 (directly). Make a note of this address and close the window.

Next we need to download a hardware configuration to the PLC. This is where we will rename the PLC node address. There are probably a couple of different ways to do this – following is how I accomplish this. All seven of my PLCs are the same model; Therefore, I am using the same hardware configuration. For the obvious reasons, I want to give each a different MPI node address. I have a project file that contains all seven of my PLC programs and one hardware configuration file. I open the one hardware configuration file, and then double click Hardware in the right hand window. This will open the HW Configuration window. In this window you should see your PLC with its MPI address given.

Remember when we clicked the Accessible Nodes icon and saw MPI = 2 (directly)? My Hardware Configuration Window is showing a MPI address of 7. Place your mouse cursor on the 7 and double click. Your CPU Properties window will open. It should open to the General tab. Look down and you will see Interface Type MPI with an address of 7. Click Properties and the MPI interface Properties window will open. Using the pull down menu, choose your MPI node address and make sure the MPI (1) 187.5kbps is highlighted and click OK. You are now back on the CPU Properties window where you will see your address has changed. Click OK and you will go back to the Hard Ware window where you can verify your MPI node address has changed.

You will now click the Save and Compile icon and then click the download icon. The Select Target Module window will open. Click OK and the Select Node Address window will open. Here you will see the MPI node address you assigned earlier. You will need to click the View button right below this. You will see the current node address appear, this should be the same as what you saw earlier when you clicked the Accessible Nodes icon. Simply click on this number and you will see it appear in the MPI address slot under the Enter connection to target station. Click OK and the Download to Module window will open. Click OK and the Stop Target Modules window will open. Click OK and the "Do you want to start the module?" Window will open. Click Yes.

Now go back to the SIMATIC Manager window and click the accessible nodes icon. You will see your new MPI node address. You can see this same article with pictures at http://www.morerobototics.com .

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Personal productivity software is an application that no business should be without. This is because of the simple fact that this piece of software makes a great contribution when it comes to ensuring productivity in the workplace. But if you are not too convinced about the importance of purchasing personal productivity software just yet, well, this is actually normal. A lot of business men do become wary when presented with the notion of purchasing such software because computer software is a bit pricey in the market right now. However, when presented with the many benefits businesses enjoy with these software applications, the activity of convincing businessmen becomes very, very easy to do.

So, why exactly do you need personal productivity software in running your business? First of all, this piece of software can give any type and size business the professional touch it needs. The software comes with applications and programs that make it very easy for you to produce professional looking letterheads, marketing reports, brochures, mailing campaigns, and the like. Even the simple act of developing professional looking paychecks is easily done with the use of such software as well. And this is just one of the minor benefits that come with such software!

When you get the basic package, you actually get a word processor, a spreadsheet application, presentation software, and the like. For a more cost-efficient option, you could consider getting one of those suites that contain a number of these tools. This way, you are sure to get more value for your money. Some examples of these suites include Microsoft Office, Sun Staroffice 8, Microsoft Works, or Corel WordPerfect Office. An interesting fact about Microsoft Works is that it actually comes free with personal computers. Aside from these suites, you can also choose to get supplementary software packages that can make your whole life easier.

One of the popular software packages includes QuickBooks. This choice is popular because it is known to be very efficient in handling and managing inventory and business finances, such as payroll and benefits packages. Now, with all these abilities, you have to be sure to allot a hefty budget for your suite of tool and the additional applications and programs you would be getting. The typical price for suites and the individual applications range from a hundred to five hundred dollars. So, if your PC is meant for more than just doing the regular email and the basics on word processing, then you should consider this option thoroughly.

You may also be worried about the hidden and recurring fees that might come with having personal productivity software installed in your system. Yes, they do come with long term costs, but these are just minimal when you compare them to the benefits you would come to enjoy with the software. An upgrade would occasionally be needed, especially after a few years or so with your own application suite. Plus, your business should be growing in a few years, right? Thus, it would make much sense to avail of this upgrade, to foster improvement for your company in the business setting. Do not worry too much about upgrade expenses because they would definitely be lower than that of the original purchase.

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These are the top 25 terms all computer students should know before they even begin their technical training. Most computer students know much more. In fact, everyone who uses a computer these days should understand these terms so they can be better informed about the important tool that is so integral to our daily lives.

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It is quite well known that the working of the computer is dropped by hardware and software. One can define computer hardware as the electronic, magnetic, and electric devices that carry out the computing functions. Hardware is the physical components of the computer like microprocessor, hard disks, RAM, and motherboard. The peripheral devices such as monitor, mouse, keyboard, printer, and speakers can also be included in the list of hardware parts. The programs that run on the computers like Windows, C ++, and Photoshop are the software parts of the computer. A good example for an easy understanding of hardware-software definition is music CDs. The actual compact disk is the hardware, while the songs and music in the CD are the software parts.

There is another way to define computer hardware. Hardware devices are the executors of the commands provided by software applications. For example, let us see what happens when you click the print button of the web browsing software. The software application provides a command to the processor, which is the central part of all computer hardware. Processor in turn checks for an attached printer. If the printer is ready, the software will get a positive response from the processor. Then the software application provides instruction to the printer via the processor to print the web page. In that sense, hardware parts are the foot soldiers and software applications are the commanders in the digital operation that takes place within a computer.

The main player of computer hardware is unduly the microprocessor. It is the sun in the solar system of computer hardware devices. It is the central component and all other components work around it. It is an integrated chip on which a number of functions are incorporated. Two specifications determine its efficiency. One is its processing speed, which is measured in gigahertz. The other is its bit rate. Commonly available processors are 32 bit and 64 bit. The bit rate is a measure of the efficiency of a processor to carry out multiple operations at the same time.

One can not define computer hardware without mentioning the two types of memory used in computers. One is permanent memory. It refers to the magnetic storage capacity of hard disk. It is measured in gigabytes. The second is RAM or random access memory. This memory is able to store data only when the computer is switched on. The memory will lose all the data when the computer is switched off.

Another important product that one should mention when one defines computer hardware is motherboard. It is the electric and electronic circuit board on which all the other components are inserted. There are several other kinds of products such as sound card, video card, network card, and modem that complete the hardware spectrum.